Chef Del Sroufe, author of The Forks Over Knives Cookbook, returns with a new bestseller-to-be, The China Study Family Cookbook, using the principles from Dr. T. Colin Campbell’s landmark study as the basis for delicious, accessible recipes that please kids and teens and in-laws and everybody, without spending all day in the kitchen.

Then then meet Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, a member of the research team that identified the first Alzheimer’s gene and several subsequent ones. I learned about Dr. Tanzi in a book by Deepak Chopra, MD, who noted that Tanzi learned that every animal who lives long enough is subject to Alzheimer’s pathology. The researcher went vegetarian that day and hasn’t looked back. One of Dr. Tanzi’s areas of research is into music and the brain. He has found that the most emotionally encoded music for anyone is whatever was popular when that person was 13 to 25 years of age. In Alzheimer’s patients, listening to this music can actually be therapeutic, even in persons at late stages of the disease. To this end, Tanzi, a jazz pianist himself, and his colleagues have launched Spark Memory Radio. This app enables the individual or caregiver to key in the subscriber’s date of birth and preferred musical genres and have ready to enjoy at will a large, customized playlist of songs scientifically selected to improve memory in that individual. Dr. Tanzi’s own music site — happy-making music for all — is: Number One Music/Rudy Tanzi.

We also talk about epigenetics (you were born with your genes, but your habits affect the expression of those genes), and the books Dr. Tanzi has co-authored with Dr. Deepak Chopra:

Great quote: “I believe in the genome the way a sailor believes in the sea. When you think you know it, it turns on you.”

And Dr. Tanzi’s acronym for a healthy brain: S-H-E-I-L-D —

Sleep — 8 hours a night

Handle stress — use meditation, etc.

Interact with others — have a community

Exercise — bare minimum: 8,000 steps a day

Learn new things — language, instrument, skill

Diet — Harvard recommends a Mediterranean diet, but Dr. Tanzi says that a vegetarian or vegan diet is even better

(Note: Dr. Tanzi is vegetarian and is raising his children vegetarian. I respect people in this position as being on the path toward veganism. It is not my place as an interviewer to educate my guests. I’m sure he’s getting plenty of vegan input these days from his coauthor, the newly vegan Dr. Chopra. In addition, in answering one of my questions, Dr. Tanzi cited an animal research study. Of course I do not condone animal experimentation at any time for any reason, but just as I have not censored Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Jonathan Balcombe, or any other guest bringing up such a study, I did not censor my guest today.)

Savings for vegans on life insurance: You may know theHealthIQpeople from their fun and educational online health quizzes, but one of the other things they do is act as a liaison for health-conscious people to get the value on life insurance. Special savings exist for certain athletes and — this is so cool — for us! Yep, because we’re vegan and the science is clear that, as a group, our health stats beat out most other groups — 15% lower risk of all-cause mortality and 9% decreased risk of cardiovascular disease — we can now save some money on the kind of insurance that would provide for our families if we were no longer here. Check off what they’re offering at HealthIQ.com/mainstreet.

Main Street Vegan is a live radio show every Wednesday, 3 pm U.S. Eastern Time, on Unity Online Radio, the Voice of an Awakening World. You can listen live at www.unity.fm and call in (816-347-5519) from anywhere on earth to ask your questions of Victoria and her guests. You can use that same url to listen to any of the live programs Unity Online Radio offers.

Or listen to our podcast — along with five years of archived programming — here. You can also subscribe on iTunes.

"The great news these days is that vegan living is for everyone. This is such an important message, and I applaud Victoria and JL for their beautiful book that will help so many people renew their commitment to a vegan lifestyle or find the courage to take the first steps." - Emily Deschanel